As Luke Lecroy grew into his role, so did Lakewood Ranch boys basketball team

Lakewood Ranch High senior Luke Lecroy didn’t look much like a high school basketball player when he started his freshman year. He was just 5-foot-9 and weighed 130 pounds.

But after four years’ worth of development, Lecroy is 6-foot-7, weighs 195 pounds and plays an important role for the Mustangs (17-6) — who open the Class 7A-District 8 tournament at home on at 7 p.m. Wednesday against the winner of the Lithia Newsome-Ruskin Lennard quarterfinal — after the loss of fellow senior Christian Shaneyfelt to a season-ending knee injury last month.

“Luke’s had to just statistically step up — score more, play more minutes, get more rebounds,” Mustangs coach Jeremy Schiller said. “He’s really grown into that role for the team. He’s got to play well every game because we need his scoring, his rebounding, his toughness.”

When Lecroy began playing at Lakewood Ranch, Schiller said he thought Lecroy would be a good high school player but not necessarily someone who earned a college scholarship.

But Lecroy began growing — four inches his sophomore season, five more his junior season and another inch this season — and adding muscle. Lecroy, who as a wing rotates between guard and forward, now towers over most guards he faces and has the muscle to match up well against forwards.

He’s averaging 12.6 points per game, up from 4.7 last season, and 2.8 rebounds per game and is shooting 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range.

“I grew taller, so that helped a lot,” he said. “We weight-lift a lot, so that helped a lot, too. I’ve gotten a lot smarter about basketball. I’ve learned a lot from Schiller, like how to read plays and stuff like that. Just working on my shot more, working on my dribbling, getting more athletic.”

Schiller pointed to Lecroy’s growth in confidence as another key part of his development.

“He went from being kind of a shy, quiet kid to now he’s a big shot-maker for us and our program,” Schiller said. “When we beat (St. Petersburg) Lakewood, who was ranked like 30th in the entire state, Luke made the game-winning 3. Against Seffner Christian, he made the game-winning free throw. He’s grown in his confidence and his abilities. I think he’s still scratching the surface of that. I think at some point he’ll realize how good he could really be.”

Lecroy has plenty of opportunities to continue his development and play basketball in college.

Multiple Division II colleges in the Gulf South, Peach Belt and Sunshine State Conferences have shown interest, as well as a few Division III and NAIA programs. He’s also received an opportunity to be a preferred walk-on at the University of Louisville, whose head coach, Chris Mack, knows Mustangs assistant coach Toby Madison.

“That’s a really neat opportunity,” Schiller said. “(Mack) watched his film and saw the way he played and basically told Coach Madison, ‘Hey, he’s got a shot at earning a scholarship in the next couple of years, but Year 1, he’d have to be a walk-on.’”

Lecroy, though, is more focused on getting the Mustangs back to the state championship game for the second consecutive year. They lost that game last year, 57-52, to Blanche Ely, but they only graduated from that team one senior who averaged more than 4 points per game.

“We went there last year, and we want to do it again,” Lecroy said. “We have a lot of returning seniors from last year, so we have confidence there. To win it, that’d be awesome.”